Also how would they still have access to IM's from so long ago? How is this kept?
Not sure kitty. I don't do much IM stuff but I think you can archive them in a folder.
My IMs in gmail are stored in chat, a seperate folder like inbox, sent items, etc. Mine goes back to May, which is when my husband signed up for gmail and we started using chat.
All IMs in yahoo and MSN can be saved. Just click file on MSN or conversation on yahoo in the chatbox, scroll down to save as and click, give the file a name, then click save to documents or any other folder. It's that easy.